Veteran, Studebaker trucks took the heat

November 29, 2005|BILL MOOR

Warren Miller, of South Bend, gets some double takes when he tells people where he served during World War II. Iran -- of all places. "I was with the Army's 334th Engineer Regiment and we were supplying the Russians on Europe's second front," he says. Hot, hot and more hot. "They said we would only be there one year -- that's all we would be able to take of the heat -- but I ended up being there for three years," says the 1940 South Bend Central graduate. Like the troops in Iraq today, Warren learned to deal with the Middle East heat that got up to 130 degrees during the day but "cooled off" to 110 in the evening. "They told us that the bugs showed up in May -- and they surely did -- and that the bugs would die in June and that we GIs would follow suit in July," he continues. Warren, 83, is still standing more than 60 years later, "although for a long time after the war, it seemed I would get these prickly heat itches," he admits. Going through basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama helped him get ready for Iran. "I still think that had to be one of the hottest places on earth," he says. "They can talk about the Middle East all they want, but Fort McClellan was right up there." As a sergeant in the 334th's headquarters company who helped train local personnel, Warren had a chance to write his girl, Ruth Borough, every day he was over there. "And she wrote me every day, too," he says of the girl that has now been his wife for 60 years. Along with the letters from Ruth, Warren received another regular reminder from home from the Studebaker trucks that the Army was using in Iran. "And often we would get boxes filled with truck parts that had a return address of Studebaker in South Bend, Indiana." His hometown. "There I was 6,000 miles from home, but it made me feel pretty good when I would see those boxes come home and Studebaker and South Bend stamped on them," he says. Warren says the Studebaker trucks really held up in Iran -- much better than any other make. "They could handle the heat and they could handle the cold and snow up in the mountains," he says. "Very dependable." His 334th Engineer Unit was part of the Persian Gulf Command that built a road across Iran for supplies to the Russians. It started in the desert and would eventually cut through mountain passes as high as 9,000 feet. "The Studebaker trucks were the ones that could get through," Warren adds. He sometimes wonders why more wasn't written about them. "But I guess that Russia wasn't that popular with us after the war and that very little fighting happened where we were. That probably had something to do with it." Warren's unit moved around from post to post as the road was built. "Working in the headquarters, I had a desk and chair and typewriter I really liked," he says. "And because there was an inspector general named Warren Miller, too, I would put my name of my stuff when we would move and nobody dared take it from me -- no matter what their rank." He ran into another Miller -- Carl Miller -- while in Iran who was also a South Bend Central graduate. "Carl was in ordnance, and we became good friends," Warren says. "We were in each other's weddings after the war." If their jobs weren't heroic, they certainly were necessary in the overall war effort. "But I tell you, the heat and the sand flies we had to put up with had a lot of guys signing up for the front," he says. When V-E Day came, Warren had 30 days of leave and married Ruth on July 22, 1945. He was then sent to New Orleans and was preparing to go to Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped. He returned home and worked in payroll and accounting at Standard Oil, Kreamo Bakers, Mishawaka Farmers Dairy and then Coca-Cola before retiring in 1989. Warren and Ruth had four children -- including South Bend police officer Don Miller -- five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "When the weather gets bad around here, all I have to do is remember how it was in Iran," Warren says. He learned to tough it out those three years, just like the Studebaker trucks. Bill Moor's column appears on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at bmoor@sbtinfo.com, or write him at the South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626; (574) 235-6072.